Community Color

SteemIt

SteemIt is a social medium platform built around a cryptocurrency called Steem.

The site is like other social media sites. It allows people to write posts and comments. When people upvote a post, they can earn steem. It is possible to make a little money for online activity.

SteemIt is like most of the Internet. There are only a few elebrity accounts that earn real money. The bulk of the users get a tenth of a penny per upvote. A tenth of a penny is more than I've made from Facebook,Tumblr or Twitter.

The great thing about SteemIt is that users get an online wallet for crypto-currency. It is a free way to learn about crypto and to get a few dollars. I started my account 58 days ago. I've dropped 230 posts and made $7.44. That is three cents a post, which is way more than I made from all my edits on Wikipedia or Open Street Map.

What I like most about Crypto is that crypto provides a mechanism for micro payments. MicroPayments might provide a mechanism for small web sites to charge for services.

Buy Ads with Steem

The transaction costs of crypto currency is lower than paypal or credit cards. One of my first experiments will be to accept Steem for advertising space on my sites. My sites target the Mountain West, but I have some global traffic.

At the time of this review (5/29/2018), I was charging 25¢ for 1,000 ad views. That is a 25¢ CPM. Please see the ad page for details.

Community Color Links

I like the basic concept of the site; So, I decided to actively promote SteemIt.

The SteemIt platform organizes posts by keywords. The URL steemit.com/trending/economics would show posts about economics.

The Community Color sites are directories for communities in the mountain west. I will link to keywords such as steemit.com/trending/utah. (see below).

Outsider's Guide to SteemIt

Written 5/31/2018: I have an account with the name @yintercept. I started this account 59 days ago. In those 59 days, I've written 220 entries (posts and comments) and the account is now with $7.44. I make $0.038 per post. My experience seems typical.

NOTE: It is extremely difficult for new users to make money through the program. The reason to start an account is to lock in a user name. Users also get a wallet for crypto currency. The real value of SteemIt is that people can learn about Crypto.

SteemIt is a vibrant social media platform. So it is possible to build web traffic from SteemIt. I get more hits for a post on SteemIt than I get from Twitter or Tumblr.

Making money on Steem is very difficult. The monetary aspect of Steem is organized around SteemPower and "upvotes." When you start an account, SteemIt will delegate 15 SteemPower to your account. The value of an upvote for an account with 15 SteemPower is 0.001 . This amount disappears as a rounding error when it SteemIt pays for a post.

The payout occurs seven days after an action. I will get paid for the post I write today a week from now.

The value of a vote for an account with 50 SteemPower is 0.01. The value of a vote with 100 SteemPower is 0.02 . That's my goal. I want to earn 100 Steem so that I can give people my two cents worth! The current price of Steem is $2.25; So that means I have to earn $225 to reach my goal.

To make voting more interesting. SteemIt uses a concept called VotePower. Each time you vote; the value of your vote drops. I found that if I vote more than a dozen times a day, the actual value of my vote drops to zero.

SteemIt Strategy

Having played with SteemIt for two months, I would say that the best strategy is to start an account to secure your user name and get a wallet. You will want to write a post a day. Follow your account on a site called Steemd.com, which displays your voting. Vote no more than ten times a day.

You should also read posts from other users and drop a few comments.

The absolute best strategy is to start SteemIt with a group of friends. If you and your friends upvote and comment on each other's posts; you will build SteemPower much faster than lone wolves like me.

As you use SteemIt, you will find that some SteemIt celebrities are making real money. Most people do not. However, the way I see it is that SteemIt pays out much more than Twitter or Facebook. I've made more in two months with SteemIt than I make in a year with a Blogspot blog.